Spills: A Common Occurrence In Our CH Household

The sound has become a common occurrence in our home: The sound of water splashing out of a water dish and onto the floor.

Sometimes it’s preceded by the sound of Ellie tumbling into the dish, followed by the sound of a wet wobbler thumping away.

No matter how the spill occurs, I’ve got my response down to a science: Go to the scene of the spill, calculate how many towels I’ll need, and then race to the linen closet to grab the appropriately sized towels, while hoping Ellie doesn’t get too far.

It’s become a routine, and most days once the inevitable happens, Ellie’s more than happy to be wrapped up in a big towel as we try to dry her off. Once she’s sufficiently dry – to the point where she can take care of it herself – I then focus on cleaning up the spilled water.

But sometimes Ellie has to wait to be snuggled, as I try to manage the bigger spill first. If Ellie comes out drenched, she receives priority. I certainly don’t want her running around the house leaving sopping-wet cat prints all over. Other days, if the amount of spilled water on the floor trumps how much got on Ellie, the floor receives priority.

The one unpredictable factor is how wet everyone and everything will get. That’s why it has been so nice that our linen closet is near by. I can grab a small washcloth, if that’s all I need, or two big bath towels.

The best part about responding to spills is that it’s a routine that I have down, and it’s comforting to be able to rely on it.

As our moving day inches closer, I’ve started to think about how I would deal with CH-related occurrences in our new home. One challenge will be where to keep “spill towels” downstairs, as our linen closet will now be located upstairs. Concerns, like this one, in the long run are minuscule to be sure, but I still want to be prepared.

Perhaps I’ll settle on a kitchen cabinet or drawer I can throw a few “spill towels” into once we move in.

Related

I keep a folded towel under the water dish (a huge ceramic bowl). I also keep the towels with in reaching distance. You may want to get one of those shelves that you can put the food and water dished underneath, and towels on top. Then your clean up supplies are right there, plus the kitties can lean on the sides of the shelves if they want.

Since Ziggy, Luna Süna and Spike have their own bedroom (where they spend the night), I don’t mind doing goofy things in there to make life easier , for them and for myself.

Our newest addition to their room (after moving into our new home last month) was their own TV with DVD player (we have it on a very low table), we have two ‘kitty’ videos that we put in for them over night. Lulu use to spend half the night asking us to wake up, we found the TV helps a lot.

It isn’t only CH kitties – we have a new kitten, 5 months old, one eye, who decided when chasing her foster sister she didn’t want to go round the waterbowl in the bathroom but would go right THROUGH it. Half an hour later the wail of horror from the downstairs toilet demonstrated that it had worked its way through the ceiling plaster and my poor mum was being rained on. A big towel or draw sheet is one of the best solutions for spillage. Holds the bowl firmer too.

I built a heavy concrete bowl holder for our first and now two CH cats, who likewise would spill everything. This was after trying numerous store bought bowl holders that were too flimsy. I took me a couple of tries but the current model is on its fifth year in service. If anyone is interested, email me and I will send you some pics and a write up of how I built it. My email address is ethaneddy@hotmail.com.